Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Stone Cat and January

FIRST ULTRA:
Well I've made my decision. I had been kicking around the idea of doing the Vermont 50 in September, but after researching races, figuring out my summer and trying to plan things out I've decided to do the Stone Cat 50 miler in November of this year.

I think that coupled with the fact that Stone Cat is a loop course (4 at 12.5 mile per loop), obviously a much flatter course than Vermont, me being a novice at this distance, and that the finish times across the board seem to be faster; I went with Stone Cat.

Even if I do or don't plan on entering the Western States' lottery, knowing that it is a faster course, makes the 11 hour WS100 qualifying time more optainable if I decided to try to get into Western States 2013, also helped me to pick Stone Cat in the end. But WS is obviously a much bigger commitment, but we can cross the moss covered trail bridge when and if we come to it.

ASSISTANCE:
While researching races for 2012, I keep coming across the name of an experienced and fairly successful trail runner in my town. I sent him out a note and he was nice enough to respond. And is willing to help me when I hit a question regarding training at the ultra's and regarding racing the longer distances on the trails.

And no I'm not talking about Ben Nephew from team Inov, who is extremely successful, who I have to admit, even though I have spent almost 99% of my 49 years in Mansfield, MA, I have never seen Ben running on the roads. But I digress.....

JANUARY 2012:
I finished January with a montly total of 69 miles. Having not run since my dad passed away on August 4th of last year, I honestly wasn't sure where I was going to be at the end of the month as I was only trying to keep track of having a weekly increase, while trying to build up the tendon strength in the right ankle. The ankle feels a thousand times better than it did at the beginning of the month, so I am looking to finish February somewhere around 105-110 miles for the 29 days. I think it is realistic goal and will keep my ankle happy (especially if I continue to do the exercises I found on line).

Enough for now, Happy February to you all. Tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Seriously it is. I mean how can you not love a holiday based around a rodent and if he sees his shadow.